BRONX—Slumlord Mohammed Kayyali, the owner of multi-family buildings at 974 Anderson Avenue and 1920 Loring Place South, was arrested on June 9 and faces up to six months in jail if he neglects to address the more than 300 open violations found on his properties. According to a Department of Housing Preservation and Development press release, HPD has had to step in and fix the boiler in 974 Anderson several times, and provided heating fuel for 1920 Loring Place last winter when Kayyali refused to do so. (That cannot have been fun for tenants, considering what a harsh winter it was.) "There is no excuse for the neglect we are seeing in these two buildings, and we will not allow landlords to ignore the law and force their tenants to live in terrible conditions," said HPD Commissioner Vicki Been. —Angely Mercado [NYDN; previously]
PETROSINO SQUARE—Organized crime detective Joe Petrosino, the namesake of Petrosino Square, the small pocket part situated between Little Italy, Chinatown, and Soho, became the only NYPD officer killed abroad when he was assassinated in Sicily in 1909. The case went unsolved... until now. A police raid in Palmermo over the weekend resulted in 95 arrests and turned up a tape on which an accused mafioso brags, "My father's uncle, whose name was Paolo Palazzotto, was responsible for the first policeman killed in Palermo. He murdered the first police officer to be killed in Palermo. He killed Joe Petrosino." [NYP; previously]
EAST VILLAGE—New rental development The Robyn angered a lot of East Village residents by replacing a historic house, but renters can't seem to get enough. Miron Properties has announced that, in only three weeks, 29 of the building's 33 units have been leased up. [CurbedWire Inbox; previously]
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